July 14, 2016 | ProgressTH It was one year ago when we first presented the tools and techniques used at our makerspace to QSNICH (Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health). Since then, we have been closely working with several nurses to develop ideas they have to solve unique problems they face throughout various departments.

We've helped develop:

1. Cheap needle disposal system;
2. Child-friendly dermatology tool;
3. Bed-leveling system and;
4. A prototype of a blood clotting device.

We've used SketchUp, Cura, and 3D printing on a heavily modified Ultimaker Original+ clone. Traditional manufacturing was not an option for the nurses because of a constraint in time and resources.

With 3D printing at local makerspaces, they were able to propose an idea, get it designed and printed out, test it, and iterate several times in one month.

For the needle disposal system, we at ProgressTH thought that a screw-on cap over the disposal inlet would have been best. But after testing several prototypes using a locking system, nurses found out the latter was better.

The only limitation so far is when a prototype finally works perfectly and the need for several hundred arises. 3D printing is not really cut out for such quantities, and factories are still not ready to affordably do the tooling unless you are making thousands. Finding a solution for this gap is underway and "microfactories" may be a possible solution.

This month, we returned to give another presentation. This time, we ended up teaching 10-15 nurses and other staff members how to use SketchUp. They designed their own keychains in less than 3 hours.

Follow up workshops are planned. We also are working with several more nurses to expand our collaboration and hope to get other hospitals interested since this event made it into the national news.

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